30 replies to this topic

[Kaelwizard]

Slave raider means they actively seek out other colony's brood and workers. Accepting brood if you give it to them is not the same.

[DJoseph98]

Hey are we sure these are monogynous? Antwiki reports they are polygynous. I'm hoping to catch some this summer so I need to figure this out and not have a tube covered in formic acid from queens battling it out.
https://www.antwiki....mica_subsericea

[Kaelwizard]

I found two nests in a cemetery the workers were all over it the cemetery so I think it could have been a super colony.

[Yeehana255]

I've caught a few formica this season. I know a few are dolosa but the others..I'm a little torn as to which they are. I have a few queens in their own test tubes and one test tube as 2 queens. Little experiment. So far they both have laid eggs and tend to them together. I transferred them to a bigger test tube and watched them work together to get the eggs in the new tube. Once I seen that the eggs were all in the new tube, one queen remained in the new home while the other came back out and seemed to be making sure all of them were rounded up. About a minute of checking each cotton fiber, she returned to her new home.

So after a couple days of leaving them be, I went to make sure they were doing well and add a deop of honey syrup. I slide the red paper back and I see them feeding each other. Another sign they are co-existing. Their brood is in one pile, not separate, and each queen hovered over them while they fed. So I slid the honey in and let them be. The next day, the honey was gone and the brood pile was still together with the queens hovering over them.

So, they seem at this point to be 2 queens raising a brood together. But I am curious when the first workers come out to see if they eliminate one or if they fight each other. If they both die, well I guess it's a good thing that I have brood to boost another queen

[FormiCanada]

Attached in the link is a free PDF on the care of Formica subsericea which will relate to most fully-claustral North-Easter Formica species. Hope this helps! 

 

https://docs.wixstat...7dbc81eeb8e.pdf

[spartANTS]

Thank you for sharing , for sure it will help.

[RushmoreAnts]

I found two nests in a cemetery the workers were all over it the cemetery so I think it could have been a super colony.

It could also be a satellite nest.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

so i see 2 mistakes in the post

 

1: Formica subsercia ALSO nest in grass and the majority of the nests i found are in the middle of a field, hence the name "silky field ants" and I usually find their nests located in a patch of tall grass that helps them make their famous thatched nests

 

2: Formica has a higher chance of polygene than other ant species, to prove that I have an colony with 2 queens and in a field I also lifted up a rock that contained 2 queens

[ANTdrew]

so i see 2 mistakes in the post

1: Formica subsercia ALSO nest in grass and the majority of the nests i found are in the middle of a field, hence the name "silky field ants" and I usually find their nests located in a patch of tall grass that helps them make their famous thatched nests

2: Formica has a higher chance of polygene than other ant species, to prove that I have an colony with 2 queens and in a field I also lifted up a rock that contained 2 queens

Fix the spelling of subsericea.

[OwlThatLikesAnts]

sorry I am pretty mixed up with their species name